employment policies

Are you aware of Bill 47: Making Ontario Open for Business Act, 2018?

October 26, 2018 Beyond Rewards Inc Employee Relations, Employment/Labour Standards, HR Policies and Procedures, Human Resources, Payroll, Wages and Compensation

On October 23rd 2018, the announcement was made from the Government of Ontario that Bill 47: Making Ontario Open for Business Act, 2018, will be proposed to change Bill 148. This new bill repeals sections of Bill 148 that had been previously introduced by the former government.

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Arbitrator upholds just cause termination in part on negative Facebook post

August 11, 2016 Simon Heath, BA, MIR, LLB, Heath Law Employee Relations, Employment/Labour Standards, HR and Technology, HR Policies and Procedures, Human Resources, Training and Development, Union Relations

Social media has become entrenched in our society and millions of employees use it on a daily basis. However, employees are warned that making negative comments about their employers on social media can have significant repercussions. Arbitrator Norm Jesin recently upheld a just cause termination, in part, because the Grievor had made negative comments about the employer on Facebook after his employment had been terminated.

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Navigating Ontario’s Employment Standards Act

April 8, 2014 Doug MacLeod, MacLeod Law Firm Employee Relations, Employment/Labour Standards, HR Policies and Procedures, Human Resources

Ontario’s Employment Standards Act (the ESA) sets out the minimum terms of employment for most employees in Ontario. It is a complex law that is difficult to understand. An employer cannot contract out of these minimum standards. Did you know your organization must post a Minister of Labour poster entitled “What You Should Know About The Ontario Employment Standards Act” in your workplace?

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New development in Christian Horizons discrimination case

August 23, 2013 Adam Gorley Employee Relations, Human Resources, Human Rights, Recruiting and Hiring

When a support worker at an evangelical Christian organization that runs homes for persons with developmental disabilities entered a same-sex relationship, the organization found the worker had breached its “Lifestyle and Morality Statement,” which prohibited homosexual relationships. The organization, Christian Horizons, eventually terminated the employee on that ground, and the worker complained of discrimination to the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal.

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Integrating the psychological health and safety standard into existing organizational policies and processes

March 4, 2013 Michele Glassford Accessibility Standards, Employee Relations, Employment/Labour Standards, Health and Safety, HR Policies and Procedures, Human Resources, Human Rights, Payroll, Pensions and Benefits, Recruiting and Hiring, Standard for Employment, Training and Development, Union Relations, Wages and Compensation

On January 16, 2013, the Standards Council of Canada (CSA) published a new national standard dealing with psychological health and safety in the workplace. Although not a mandatory standard at this time, it is foreseeable that legislators, health and safety officers and inspectors, adjudicators and tribunals will be influenced by the standard when dealing with psychological and mental health issues in the workplace. In addition, such standards may be absorbed into the employer’s general duty to protect workers from harm in the workplace, which exists in all jurisdictions in Canada. Employers should also scrutinize their workplace operations, policies, procedures and processes under the auspices of the psychological health and safety system recommended in the standard.

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Could these counterintuitive policies work for your company?

July 11, 2012 Adam Gorley Employee Relations, HR Policies and Procedures, Human Resources

Flexible scheduling, telecommuting, broad benefit plans, and so on can hardly be considered unorthodox anymore. But what about increasingly creative efforts to make and keep employees happy? It’s old news that Google’s offices feature games, free food and massages in a casual and comfortable atmosphere. Many others have followed suit. Take a look at these counterintuitive employment policies.

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Written agreements in the employment relationship are valuable

August 25, 2011 Earl Altman Employment/Labour Standards, Human Resources, Recruiting and Hiring

I have written in this blog and elsewhere, of the value in written employment contracts, written offers of employment, and written employment policies. Much like the break up of a marriage, the parties to the dissolution of the employment relationship often have widely divergent recollections of the understanding of the terms of the relationship when they were entered into. In particular,…

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Ontario Court of Appeal deals with stock grants and termination

May 3, 2011 Earl Altman Employment/Labour Standards, Human Resources

Long gone are the days when employees would receive pay cheques at the end of the week and possibly a Christmas bonus each year. Compensation for employees, particularly senior employees, has become increasingly complex as employers seek to incent specific behaviours among their executives. In addition, changing tax laws and the wild gyrations of the stock markets have made stock options more difficult to administer and less appealing to employees.

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Employee exodus: has Moses led your employees to the promised land?

May 18, 2010 Earl Altman Employment/Labour Standards, Human Resources

You arrive at the office Monday morning to discover that your Senior Vice-President of Marketing and three of your sales people have resigned and accepted jobs with your competitor. You quickly realize that this has the potential of seriously harming, if not destroying, the company’s business. Do you have any recourse against the departing employees or the company to which they have moved?

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